ITALY:
Just came back from holidays in Italy, and I have to second what Jason
Heikenfeld said: acid-jazz seems to be big there. I went to Bologna,
which is a student town, hence music-active (the town of Irma records,
among others). The vibe is mostly instrumental acid-jazz bands a la
Quintetto X or Bossa Nostra, but there are a few electronics things
coming out, as someone on the list already mentioned. I bought a few
records, among which are Ohm guru, which is nice, Lainz featuring
Gaudi, which sounds like a funny jam, but nothing really new (at the
beginning of the track, you can hear a few bars of the original song
where the bass line for MC Solaar's "bouge de la" was sampled
from... anyone can point me the song?), and S-tone inc, or something
like that. All in all it seems to be a scene that has grown a lot
lately, but Bologna in august is not the real Bologna since nearly all
students are on holidays, perhaps the italians on this list can
comment these impressions?
FRANCE:
Thanks Jason for DJ Cam's "underground live act" review; for DJ Cam's
fans, check out his forecoming LP out on september the 20th, it's
really nice, abstract hip hop with a few jungle beats, many different
atmospheres and quite "experimental".
I'll be probably writing soon about new things out in France, among
which are an EP of La Funk Mob remixing Daphreephunkateerz, and the
news from Versatile Records, DJ Gilb-R's label.
In the meanwhile, keep in touch.
Daniel
now playing: rebirth of cool 6, nothing very new but a beautiful,
colourful compilation